New exchange programs take faculty down south and Down Under

By Amy Milgrub Marshall

"G'day!" and "Tudo bom?"* were heard frequently on campus this past spring, when the School of Music and School of Visual Arts hosted visitors from Australia's Victorian College of the Arts and Brazil's Universidade de Brasília to kick off the College of Arts and Architecture's first faculty exchange programs. Over the summer, Simone Osthoff, assistant professor of critical studies, traveled to Brazil, while James Lyon, professor of music in violin, visited Australia to "complete" the exchanges.**

According to Randy Ploog, coordinator of international programs and outreach planner, the college initiated exchanges with the Victorian College of the Arts and the Universidade de Brasília because those institutions have programs in the visual and performing arts within the same academic unit, like the College of Arts and Architecture. "We wanted to identify places that resemble us as a college. This will allow more faculty members to benefit from the exchange programs,"Ploog said.

Australian Exchange
Miwako Abe, a strings faculty member at the Victorian College of the Arts, spent five weeks at Penn State in February and March. A native of Japan who has lived in Australia for 20 years, Abe was able to share two cultures with her American counterparts. Although she did not teach any formal classes due to her short visit, almost all violin majors had at least one individual lesson with her as a supplement to their weekly lessons with Lyon. Some students took more advantage of her expertise, particularly when they were preparing for auditions. "After everyone had met her, we left it to the students to take the initiative to approach Miwako for additional help, and this ensured it was worth her time," explained Lyon.

In the weeks before his departure, Lyon took advantage of having an Australian colleague just down the hall. "I've bombarded Rob Nairn [assistant professor of music in bass] with questions," noted Lyon, whose musical family accompanied him to Australia. His wife is a cellist, while his 16-year-old daughter plays the violin, 13-year-old daughter plays the cello and 8-year-old son sings. "I wanted my wife and children to experience Australia with me," Lyon said, noting that he and his family planned to seek opportunities to perform together. Before leaving for Australia, the Lyon family had invitations to perform at the Conservatorium of Music in Tasmania and at James Cook University in Townsville, in addition to the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).

The VCA, Lyon's "home base" while in Australia, evolved from the National Gallery Art School, which was established in 1867. In 1991, the VCA became an affiliated college of the University of Melbourne. The VCA's School of Music was established in 1974. Like the College of Arts and Architecture, the VCA offers programs in visual arts, dance, theatre and music, plus film and television production.

In addition to working with music faculty at the Victorian College of the Arts, Lyon and his family planned to travel throughout Australia as much as possible during their month-long stay. When not visiting other schools and universities, they wanted to see places "a little off the beaten path."

Lyon had two main goals for his trip: 1) to create awareness of Penn State as a leader in the arts and 2) to create interest in students who may consider Penn State as a study abroad location. He said, "I see myself serving as an ambassador for Penn State's arts programs."

Brazilian Exchange
Brazilian artist Gê Orthof, a tenured professor in the Instituto de Artes at the Universidade de Brasília, visited Penn State from April 9 through May 9, 2002. While here, he participated in graduate and undergraduate theory classes and studio critiques, attended student performances and film screenings, and enjoyed many end-of-semester parties. He also gave a lecture, titled "thestripperlibrary," at the Palmer Museum of Art on April 17. His presentation focused on a series of wearable books he created during a residency last year at Tufts University in Boston. An interview between Gê Orthof and Karen Keifer-Boyd, associate professor of art education, can be seen and heard on a new Web site, http://www.emitto.net, created by Simone Osthoff and Carlos Rosas, assistant professor of art.

According to Simone Osthoff, Orthof brought more than talent and experience in the arts to Penn State. "Gê Orthof's life and work were a great example to our students of artistic agency confronting life's reversal of fortune," she said. In the mid-1960s, a young Orthof and his family were forced to leave Brasília due to persecution by a right-wing military dictatorship, which stayed in power until the late 1980s. "Orthof's return to that city, which seemed to be destiny in retrospect, was a way of reclaiming one's space in history and reconnecting with the idealistic dream Brasília represented to his parents' generation," explained Osthoff, adding that Orthof's mother had been a faculty member at the Universidade de Brasília, in the theatre department.

Simone Osthoff's two-month trip to her native Brazil continued a collaboration she had begun with GêOrthof in 1994-95. They are currently planning a long-term joint project focusing on the university as a medium, theme and site for art making. They want to merge teaching and research in a critical, interdisciplinary exploration of the Penn State University Park and Universidade de Brasília campuses, including their aesthetics, architecture, history, politics and pedagogical philosophies. Their goal is to continue involving faculty and students from both universities in an international artistic exchange that includes research, lectures, outreach projects and development of various multimedia products.

During her residency at the Universidade de Brasília, in addition to conducting research for the joint project, Simone Osthoff assumed many of the same responsibilities Gê Orthof had at Penn State. She also had a solo show of her large-scale drawings at the Universidade de Brasília gallery. Her works, geometric and modular in nature, explored a "poetic geometry of time," which relates to the memory of spaces where she lived.

Osthoff's love for Brazil led her to initiate and participate in this exchange program. Because Brazilian art and culture are the focus of her work, she hopes to extend her lecturing and research opportunities in that country. According to Osthoff, returning to Brazil allowed her to gain "a fresh, more critical perspective on U.S. culture and politics," much like moving to the United States gave her a fresh perspective on her native country.

Like Lyon, Osthoff viewed the faculty exchange as an opportunity to serve as an ambassador—although her goal is to increase awareness of Brazilian culture at Penn State. "Brazilian students know a lot about the United States, but the opposite is not true," she said. Next year, Osthoff will be teaching a new course on Brazilian art and culture for the Schreyer Honors College, which may include a study trip to Brazil. She said she hopes the exchange program and her further efforts to expose Penn State students and faculty to Brazilian culture will lead to the establishment of an interdisciplinary Brazilian studies program.

*The native language of Brazil is Portuguese. "Tudo bom?" means "Is everything okay?" The answer is typically "Tudo bem," or "Everything is fine."

**Because of this newsletter's production schedule, James Lyon shared his plans for his trip before departing for Australia. Look for updates on the faculty exchange programs in future issues of Arts and Architecture News.